Netflix

Not so much a single innovation as the successful application and extension of an innovative business model, Netflix has impressed by building on what it already had. Taking advantage of the growing digital economy, it’s changed the way television, in particular, is accessed and absorbed

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

2014 was the year Regeneron’s Genetics Centre became fully operational, and new research collaborations, including with Columbia University, were announced. The centre will allow Regeneron to continue its work in biopharmaceuticals

Airbnb

In 2014, Airbnb launched its first global marketing campaign – ‘Views’, by agency Pereira & O’Dell – to showcase its offerings around the world. It worked – the company has continued to grow, and Airbnb is now enshrined in tourists’ thinking

Sallie Krawcheck, Ellevate

Krawcheck’s purchase of women’s networking club 85 Broads, which she rebranded as ‘Ellevate’, has helped open up chances to professional women across the globe. In a world in which equal pay and opportunities have still not been achieved, her efforts are a welcome step

Quorn

Quorn was the first global meat-alternative to achieve third-party certification of its carbon footprint figures from the Carbon Trust – a testament to the company’s push for sustainability. The firm has invested in analysis of its entire supply chain

With an expanding range of healthy products made from Mycoprotein, Quorn has reinvented the way vegetarians eat. The firm, based primarily in the UK and Ireland, has made startling inroads to a traditionally stubborn market place – that of the meat substitute. Taking on a niche but growing market, Quorn became suitable for vegans in 2012 and continues to research alternatives. Internally, the company has strengthened its supply chain, with reports indicating well over three million less eggs being used in the production process.

Supplements

Innovation 40 - 2014

Netflix

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Airbnb

Sallie Krawcheck, Ellevate